Business of Esports TV: Everyone’s a Co-Owner

(Livestream #129B)

In this segment, we discuss Dr. Disrespect’s response to Valkyrae and CouRage becoming co-owners of 100 Thieves and the emerging pattern of “co-ownership” in businesses.

The Business Of Esports brings you news, debates, and all the information you need to know about the gaming sector, the world’s fastest-growing market. With Paul “The Profit” Dawalibi leading the charge, and a variety of special guests, BoE TV is the only place to find insider information on the esports industry!

Check out the full livestream here:

Paul Dawalibi 1:14:32
Lindsey, we’d have to bring you on. special, special interviewer. Let’s see. Well, we can talk about Microsoft. I don’t know if you guys want to do that. What’s it what’s most interesting for you guys in the chat if time for one more here or we could talk about the doc? Totally trashing last week’s announcement of valkyrae and courage joining 100 thieves ownership group. We could talk about that.

Lindsay Poss 1:15:00
Can you bring that up briefly while the chat decides what serious story we would have?

Paul Dawalibi 1:15:03
Sure, sure. Let’s, let’s bring that up. What?

Jeff Cohen 1:15:06
What did the doc say? Yeah.

Paul Dawalibi 1:15:08
So let me just recap. So everyone knows what we’re talking about here. Last week, we talked about valparai, or last week or two weeks ago, talked about Valkyrie and courage becoming co owners of 100 thieves. And, and the doc had an opinion on this. And basically, he said, they made it more of a PR thing. And if you read his full full thing here, it says, I think they made it more of a PR thing. It’s not like courage is getting 25% and Valkyries getting like 25%. You know what I mean? I think they’re probably getting 1%. Maybe that maybe 2% stake in ownership, that would be my guess. So they just decided to make it a big PR move. And there’s your views and impressions. So the doc basically saying, I’ll paraphrase, I’ll put words in his mouth. They’re not really co owners, they own a tiny bit of style. And this was more just to generate buzz and press. I just want to put this next to another story, where Nick mercs announced that he’s going to be a co owner of faze because he’s getting some piece of the pie to again, probably like 1% or less. How do we feel about influencers, calling themselves co owners when they have such small equity stakes? And do we agree with the doc is the question.

Lindsay Poss 1:16:36
I mean, if you want to go with the professional sports comparison, I don’t think that we pretend that every professional athlete is a genius who should own part of the team. So I don’t think the doc is far off here.

Paul Dawalibi 1:16:46
The question is like, if you own if the if they give you like, Look, my view on this last week was par for the course, if you have key employees, you give them some equity, right? So they’re incented. But you don’t go around and call yourself a co owner in the normal business world, right? Like, if you’re an employee, and I give you some stock, you’re not. You don’t get co owner in your title.

Lindsay Poss 1:17:08
No, I put it on my license plate and a bumper sticker.

Paul Dawalibi 1:17:12
Great. You’re a shareholder, you may feel like an owner in the business because you are. It’s just as a title. I think the doc is saying this is total PR move because they don’t own much of the company. I mean, Gabe says the sad part is doc is right. Do you guys feel differently? No,

Lindsay Poss 1:17:32
no, I don’t think these people are business geniuses is my point. I don’t think they like went on with a structured plan. Like if I generate this much revenue, I’m going to get this much ownership. And they’re actually I don’t think they’re going to be like active owners, I don’t think they’re going to be helping make a lot of the decisions. I don’t think they have a large piece of the pie. Totally seems like a PR move. I

Paul Dawalibi 1:17:54
agree. I think it’s total PR and I like phases, just such a repeat offender on this like co owner front. There’s so many owners of FaZe clan, you literally like just search owner, FaZe clan on LinkedIn. And there’s probably like 50 names that come up. It’s just I think it’s it gets out of hand and it sort of cheapens what it is to be an investor in those businesses in some ways. So Chris says, How much PR is Shaq owning energy? Chris, do you know what how much of energy he actually owns? Like? Is it a token amount like an advisor? Like, you know, half a percent or 1%? Or a quarter of a percent? Like is it that or does he own a big chunk? Because I actually don’t know. I know when the article the article we we mentioned we talked about on the podcast tomorrow around energy. And the general that article does mention Shaq helping or supposedly helped broker the deal because he is the face of the general insurance. Like he does the TV ads. So he

Jeff Cohen 1:19:02
is everywhere. I mean, the guy

Lindsay Poss 1:19:05
he never turns down a check.

Paul Dawalibi 1:19:11
So but like it’s pretty small, maybe but at least here he brought value, right as a an owner or investor and I don’t know. Yeah, I think if you’re those small amounts, I’d rather you just say your shareholders. Well, it’s

Jeff Cohen 1:19:26
weird. It’s weird in that they both employees and co owners, because it’s not weird to call yourself a co owner of something if it’s You’re just an owner and you’re not an employee, like there’s plenty of people who truly you know, own 2% of like the Golden State Warriors and say, Hey, I’m a co owner, co owner of the Warriors right, which is fine, but it’s weird if you’re also an employee, like if you’re, you know, if you’re like, Hey, I’m a co owner of Facebook because I work at Facebook and got you know, some stock like yeah, maybe definitionally I guess you are a co owner but like I also am a co Owner I own like 50 shares of Facebook like that, you know, it’s your shareholder, and you’re an employee first. But in this case, if they’re not employees, you know, to call themselves co owners, I think is a little bit makes a little bit more sense.

Paul Dawalibi 1:20:15
I mean, the doc pointed out, it’s a PR move, and I would argue on that front, it was a success, right? A lot of people talked about 100, thieves, and courage and Valkyrie becoming owners. And so, you know, hard to argue with the doctor. The real allowances shakin a rod both bought stake in the team together. So Chris is right, just another PR stunt. Agreed.